Alpha
by SackingGold
Summary: And then, everything froze.


Okay, okay, before you start reading that god-knows-what down there, there are a few things that I honestly feel the need to announce.

Firstly, please note that if I don't end up falling into depression as a result of this thing turning out to be shit, this fan fiction series is meant to be a total rewrite of the HiME canon. I am taking the fundamentals of the world and rebuilding from there. Now, you say, people do this all the time, it's no big deal. And yes, you are right. But- in this particular rewrite, there will be a little bit of OOC. Now, I will try to keep it to the limit of one certain character only (guess who?), but if anybody comes complaining, the only thing I'll say is 'don't say I didn't warn you.' And yes, I will be renaming most of the characters. I just feel more comfortable writing when  
characters have the names I choose.

Secondly, if you read the chapter below, or any chapter of the series, really, I ask that you, no, I _beg_ that you write a review. Preferably, a good, in-depth review of what can you see here. Now, if it turns out that this first chapter is not very good, I will keep writing to around chapter 5 or so, and if it's still not too great, I'm going to be taking everything down for a rewrite. And if it is good, well then... celebrate or something. I don't know.

Well, regardless of anything, those are my plans. Hopefully they don't reflect any stupidity. And yes, I only sound this formal in writing. In real life, I'd be likely cursing about once every sentence.

* * *

She did know that many times, it was rather unwise. Walking, walking, down a hallway… without seeing. Not blindness, really. Just a lack of attention. In such a situation, however, she could not avoid it… this book, it was a masterpiece, it was impossible to look away, and this was the scene in which he was challenging Cluny the Scourge, which only added to such a fact… She forgot everything else thanks to this, including where exactly she was.

In reality, she was not wielding the sword of Martin the Warrior, taking Redwall back from the vermin hoard, but rather walking down a hallway aboard a cruise ship. It was a large and considerably fancy ship, one that, regularly, would be rather expensive. Had it not been for a single pair of letters, she would not be here at all. She would have ignored the existence of such things, not giving them any mind at all, as if having forgotten of their invention entirely. In fact, she was not sure if she wanted to be here at all, as the idea of moving had always unsettled her. It was like going to an alien world. And maybe, because of that, she shut the world out using that book, ignoring everything, even what was hurdling towards her like a cannonball, up until-

"_Ouch!" _And suddenly, as she was knocked to the floor, such a world, such a vision, collapsed, shattered, to be replaced with a reality clearly containing… a student, also having been knocked to the floor. That was the only reason one of his age would be there, as clearly hewas around her age, a young age, about fifteen or sixteen.

"Er…I…" he stuttered as she examined him. His face, to her, was like that of a horse, as it was long and rather pointed. The hair and eyes did not help. The eyes were a dark, muddy brown, which she had always imagined would be on a horse. The hair might well have the horse's mane. It was entirely yellow, brown on the bottom, with absolutely none of it falling to the front or side. Even in the body, he was lean and long, especially in the legs, covering it all with a white t-shirt under a brown vest along with a pair of grey pants. Clearly he had been running.

With this seen, she stood up "It's fine," she said. "I should've just paid more attention…"

"Oh. No, it's… it's fine…" he said, as started to rise to his feet. "There's no need to freak out about this…"

"Well, you've got an interesting fashion of apologizing, considering I can tell juuust where you're _staring_, you know."

Spin around. Change target of gaze (now an actual face). As for her, simply shift gaze with curiosity to see the newcomer. What they both saw was as described- a short girl, likely in middle school, wearing just a simple green dress. But in terms of appearance, what really stood out was her hair. The style alone was odd- it reminded her of a squid of or an octopus- considering it consisted of group of four long pigtails divided evenly on the two sides of her head. But the colour… was pink. Specifically, it was a dull, faded looking pink, but nonetheless, it was _pink_. As she and the other student took this in (the latter with a look of shock on his face) she literally grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and simply hauled him up, at the same time telling him with passion in her voice, "I told you, 'Just try it.' I told you I'd haul you back, but hey, look you tried it anyway! And look where it landed you, absolutely nowhere. This is just like I told you what would happen, and what will _only_ happen, 'cause you… can't… run from me." She said the last fragment of this statement was said when the student was on his own feet again, pulling his arm from her grip.

"And why the hell does it have to be that way? You think I enjoy having running away from you as you try to pretty much enslave me? Because my God, if you do, you need a newsflash."

"I do this because the absolute moment I met you I _claimed _you. As my property, I can't just have you running about like just now. Like it or not, this is what's gonna be." He cursed as the pink-haired girl turned to her. "Yeah, are you okay?" she began," Sorry about that, you can blame me, he's my idiot after all."

In response, she gave her the same message that she gave the other. Therefore she said, with a friendly smile on her face, "Well, if you say so. Hope that this doesn't have to happen again." And with a wave, she and student (being almost forcefully pulled by the arm) continued down the hallway in the opposite direction of which she herself was aiming for. The conversation would have continued for longer, but she was not given enough time to prepare her response.

She did not, however, have to wait very long to get another chance. It was only about an hour before she encountered the duo again. She was sitting at a four- seated circular table in the ship's dining area. It was, like the ship itself, a large and fancy place, with a curved double staircase with a small stage in between at the northern end, and a large, equally fancy-looking buffet. The centre area was not lacking either- it was well lit, the floor was covered with what must have been gold woven it an excellent carpet, with small, well-polished wooden tables, all circular, all clothless. From the buffet, she had taken nothing- she wasn't hungry. And anyway, she was waiting for someone to find her in this crowded place.

Around this time, two people walked to the table she claimed. Looking up, she that they came back again. The horse and the octopus. "Hey, is it okay if we sit here?" asked the octopus, "Everywhere else is full."

"Sure. But I'm waiting for someone else, in case it bothers you," She responded

"No worries." was the response. They sat down.

"By the way… Back in the hallway, we never gave names. If were doing this, it does make sense."

She stared for a moment before realizing that the octopus was waiting for her response. Upon that realization, she began, but- "Hey, MaIna!"

This time, it was her turn to spin about. What she saw walking towards her was waving figure. Therefore, she smiled and called out, "Hey!" in return.

The figure arrived, and sat down. The next question given was "Oh, so this is who you were waiting for?" Naturally, it came from the octopus, as clearly the horse had no interest in conversation. She nodded, for it was.

This person arrived and took the last seat. "So… Who is this?" Octopus.

"Oh… My name 's Tatsuya." He said before his partner could continue her previous statement.

"I'm Maina Toriam," she said afterwards, "We're siblings."

"Err… biologically?"

"No, not biologically. I was adopted when I was four. You know, before he was born."

Such a statement made sense, as they looked nothing like each other. The younger brother was small, even for his age, with a stockier in general build, with light blue eyes and short, ruffled, brown hair, the elder sister with neck length orange hair, a leaner, taller build, and Vvolet eyes.

"And I'm ShInon. Nothing more to it." Said she, with something of pride in her voice.

With everybody else through with introductions, everybody turned to stare at the sullen-looking horse. For a moment, he simply stared in return. And then, "My name's… Yuun Tate."

"There you go, that's my big brother!" said Shinon, heartily slapping him on the arm.

"So you two as well?" asked Maina.

"What? …Oh, that." she responded, "No, we're not really either. I just started to call him that one day and in the process destroyed his personal freedom." She smirked. Yuun's face just stayed frozen."Sooo… I guess you lot are here for the scholarship as well?"

"Yeah, we're here for it," Maina responded. "We received the letter at that start of summer break. I guess you're here for it too?"

"Only thing people like us can be here for. At first, we were going to be doomed to separation, but then this came in. Dunno about him, but for me, this was a miraculous savior." She certainly sounded enthusiastic. "I mean, when I first got it, I wasn't entirely sure if I wanted it, but seeing him with it, I needed it." At this point, she was very much using him like a pole.

This continued on for quite a while. At one point, all but left Maina for the buffet set in the corner, leaving her alone again for a few minutes, and returning all with full platters. She noticed that in some way, they had tuna on their plates. And at this, many more breaks appeared in their speech, but despite this, some things were very clear.

Shinon was very much talkative, and seemed very much proud of it. She took up well over half the speech that was included in the conversation, sometimes speaking so quickly that it was difficult to understand her. She did so with a good amount of enthusiasm, and seemed happy to speak upon any subject.

Yuun, on the other hand, could not be more different. While he seemed to cheer up a little as time went on ( he no longer looked so sullen ), he never spoke and his expression never went beyond expressionless. He simply ate in silence, maybe listening, maybe not.

Tatsuya spoke mostly for politeness. Maina knew he never really liked to talk with people he didn't really know, so there were several times in which she spoke in his place just to spare him the trouble/

It went on for an hour or so. After ending the conversation with a what was essentially a rant upon how much their needed to be chibi Rak Wraithraiser plush available for purchase (which Maina very much understood), Shinon rose from her seat.

"We should start going, you know. We need to go and get ready, this ship's landing soon. Now come on, dear brother, we must exit now." Maina was sure he muttered a response under his breath.

"By the way…" Shinon began again, "We actually snuck a cat on board with us. The thing's run off though, and we haven't been able to find him again. He's kinda small, and has all black fur and green eyes. If you see him, let us know 'kay? Anyway, nice talking to you." She waved to them as she turned and left.

They stared after them for a moment. "Well…" said Tatsuya, "That was rather unexpected." This was followed by a bit of a nervous laugh. "Still, they seemed kind of interesting."

"Uh huh…" began Maina. "But you know, they're right. We're going to be arriving soon. And we also have less time than we wanted." So they themselves got up and left.

While it took Maina only about ten minutes to shower, it her took about half an hour in re-gather all her things. While she and Tatsuya shared separate rooms (when they had finally applied, no rooms to accommodate two remained available), it didn't matter much. They had been there for a week, and she had never cared much keeping things clean, but now was the time to pack. Clothes, check, supplies, check, books, while it took a particularly long time to find two of her favorites, eventually, it became a check. At the end of it all, there was only one thing missing- a necklace of hers. Its chain was of actual silver, with a pendant an ornate snowflake, also of silver. At that time, she had it for two years- it was a gift from a good friend who had significantly more money to spend than she, and she had no wish to lose it. While she remembered forgetting to close the door to her room before leaving for the dining room, but she doubted that someone had come in and stolen it. Likely, she had misplaced it.

She noticed that by this time, the sun had fallen completely. She decided to take a bit of walk- rather than continuing to fervently search, she decided to for once try putting herself in a situation that would allow her to think. And considering the season, it would likely be an enjoyable night.

It was. The summer night was cool indeed. It was only helped by the existence of a soft breeze that surfaced occasionally, adding a pleasant bit of variation.

Maina walked to the left railing and looked out. While there, she was distracted from her necklace by what she saw. What the bottom half of her vision yielded was an ocean, very much darkened by the night sky, though in some places brightly lit, made white. What the top half- and very quickly, both halves- yielded was a sky that was black other than a large, round, silver disc. That was what she thought at first, before realizing that there was another source.

It was smaller source. Much smaller. It was red, and lay to the bottom right of the moon. Maina knew it couldn't be plane or a helicopter- it didn't blink or move. It was just like a star in that way. Completely still. And completely new. Even searching as far back as she could in her memory, she found nothing.

But what she found strangest was the fact that no one else seemed to notice it. Looking around at the few people she could see, all but a few were chattering, and the few who were only gazing out clearly weren't looking at it.

She didn't have much time to think of it, however, as she was quickly interrupted. Something had brushed up against her leg. Looking down, she saw that it was a cat. A small cat. A black cat. She couldn't tell the eye colour, however, as the cat had its head turned away from her. She also noticed that the cat's mouth contained the very necklace she was searching for. If it had to be any thief, she never would have expected a cat.

Her first idea was to find Shinon or Yuun, she then remembered that she didn't know where to find them, so she performed the one act left to her and stooped to pick it up. This proved to be unsuccessful, as the cat, without turning its head, ran towards the open doors leading inside the ship. She chased after.

Directly inside the doors, a hallway directly to the front lead towards the dining area. To the right, stairs down lead to a hallway that branched off into other rooms (many of them game rooms), eventually leading to the rooms. But to the left lay her target, as the cat chose that direction, running off with the necklace swinging along in its mouth. These downward stairs led to a hallway containing the employee only rooms. She'd catch the cat there- at the end of the hallway lay the cargo and luggage room, whose door was always locked. She knew because while the rooms were forbidden, the hallway itself was not. So she continued to follow the cat.

But Maina didn't catch the cat then. She followed the cat down the entirety of the hallway, certainly… but at its end, rather than finding a locked door like she expected, the door she countered was very much open, and the cat very much able to slip through the gap. She looked behind her. Nobody. All was silent other than the sounds of the workings of the ship. Therefore, she slipped through the gap as well. She didn't really mind being caught that much as long as she got the cat- she would be checked and escorted back to her room, but having taken nothing, that would be it.

Inside the large room it was crowded with a variety of things, with the air itself seeming to reflect that- it was stuffy, and that was something she always disliked. But other than that, nothing about the room was particularly horrid. It was filled with a combination of the larger parts of passenger luggage, boxes and crates of varying sizes, as well as what was clearly furniture, some packaged, some not. The majority of it all was ordered by the destination itself, likely being supplies, add-ons, and replacements.

For the cat, which was small, slipping through many of the resulting spaces was easy, but for Maina, things were a little odd. She was constantly stepping over and squeezing through things. There were semi-paths through the crowd crisscrossing everywhere, but the cat rarely stayed on one for long. There were several times in which she nearly fell over, and several times in which she nearly lost sight of the cat. Nevertheless, she continued- at this point, thought, she was getting frustrated.

This chase continued for a little while- how much a little while was exactly, Maina did not know. It only ended when the cat stopped. She had just rounded the corner formed by a particularly large bookcase when she saw the cat, tail wagging, at last sitting down and looking something that seemed to be lying in the corner formed by two large boxes.

Internally, Maina celebrated. That necklace was dear to her, and she wanted to finally have it back. Therefore, she wasted no time. She covered the remaining distance between herself and the cat in three long strides and snatched that cat up, which stubbornly clung to her necklace even as it finally turned its head. Because of this, she finally saw its eyes- golden, not green. This revelation was unexpected enough to cause her to pause for moment, and this moment was enough to allow the cat to struggle free from her grip and enter the corner of the boxes. Maina cursed loudly.

She entered the corner herself. And what she saw there wasn't what she expected. She expected to finally be able to catch the cat, retrieve what it had taken, and run back to her room after possibly kicking the cat in frustration. But what she saw stopped her from doing such a thing. There, lying in the corner, having apparently woken from sleep, wearing a torn brown shirt, was a scrawny, dirty girl with black hair that was short other than a pair of twin braids, but what were most striking in appearance was the eyes. They were golden, catlike. Shining and polished-looking, they contrasted remarkably with the rest of the girl.

For a moment, Miana and the girl simply stared at each other. For a moment, Maina forgot all about the cat, which now seemed to actually have the goal of giving the necklace to the girl. She stood up. And that was when the cat froze.

And when the cat froze, it truly froze. The tail in mid-wave stopped in midair. The head in mid-turn might have been that of a stuffed cat. Even the necklace, which had been swinging in its mouth, might have been that of a statue. All was suddenly silent, as if the ship had been frozen in time. The only sound was sudden, loud _boom._

Shock grew upon the girl's face, and jumping up right after, tripped on the now completely solid cat before getting back up, pushing past Maina and running in the direction of the entrance to storage. Maina only stared after her, nothing but blank shock and confusion upon her mind and face. After a moment, she bent down and took one final, near-desperate yank upon the chain of the necklace. It remained completely immobile, and all she got when she even kicked the cat was a hurting toe. At this point, she decided that the best course of action was to follow the scrawny girl. Very clearly, she knew something.

Throughout the running, Maina could clearly keep the girl in sight, but could never catch up. "Uh… Hey!" she gasped. "What… the hell was that?"

There was no answer. Maina couldn't find a way to justify this. She, with the other girl, clearly was involved with this, so what was keeping away her right to know? Being forced to be confused only made finally catching up to the now still girl at the entrance to the deck more satisfying. Or would have, as what Maina saw there erased all else from her mind.

Everyone and everything upon the deck had frozen just like the cat, to the point of essentially being stone. But the largest player upon the stage was evidently not even human

A massive, looming beast lay beyond the doorway. Seven flat, clawed feet supported seven long, sticklike legs, which in turn supported a thick, scaly, lizard like body. The head was triangular and mouthless, and seven long, thin tails swished non-stop behind the beast. And its seven black eyes were focused directly upon the girl.

While Maina stood frozen with fear and confusion at the doorway, the girl, thin, black braids dancing behind her, did not hesitate to dash out to meet the monster. As it took a small step towards her, she very literally pulled a black, gleaming sword out of the wooden floor. It was much too long for her, but she evidently didn't care, as she simply allowed it to drag as she ran for the beast's first leg.

The girl swung, sparks flying, and struck. But she did not slice. When the edge of her sword struck the monster's leg, the leg proved itself to be tougher than it looked, as the sword's edge actually bounced off. In response, it lifted its head and, despite being mouthless, unleashed an ear-piercing scream. One of the monster's tails then began to rapidly lengthen- and then launch itself at the girl.

She only just managed to jump out of the way. Right after landing, she was forced to jump again, as second tail extended to strike her down. This time, the girl aimed to sliced its head in two, and might have succeeded, had one of the monster's tails not hit her hard, knocking her to the side, and causing her to crash to the ground right in front of one stone-frozen people. As the monster prepared to strike again, Maina finally snapped out of her frozen state- she had just noticed who it was that the girl had just landed in front of.

She forgot he had essentially turned to stone. She didn't know what she would do. But she suddenly did not care. As she ran, all she knew was the one thing she would not, could not allow was Tatsuya's death. One of the tails of the monster began moving, snaking towards them. It sped up. She lunged.

_BANG._

The tail struck. And yet, it didn't. It struck a wall.

With the girl now lying on the floor, unconscious, an orange transparent wall had appeared out of absolutely nowhere, guarding the three of them from the front. Maina saw that she herself had also been affected- being on her hands and knees, she had seen that now her wrists were now being circled by three light blue beads each. The monster was now staggering to the side, but as one of its left eyes had been shot, it was evident what had knocked the tail of the beast to the side was not the wall.

At the far end of** t**he deck, another monster had joined the chaos of the deck. While it was also huge, (though not as huge as the other) it still contrasted with the first monster's reptilian appearance and the constant contrast of its own body parts. This one was very doglike, and had some form of literally shining fitness. It appeared mechanical as well- the shine of its body came from silver armor that encased the whole of its body, with a long, tapering tail ending in a point, and even twin silver cannons pointing backward at its sides.

But this wasn't the cause either. The cause stood beside the inhuman newcomer, and seemed perfectly human.

She was tall girl, seemingly around the older teens in age. Her cold expression was complemented by long, shining dark blue hair and eyes of a matching colour. In both her hands there was a silver pistol, and the one her right was pointed at the monster.

"Duran."

At that moment, silver dog charged with a high mechanical howl. In two great leaps, it covered the distance between it and the other monster. At the second leap, it opened a massive jaw with gleaming teeth that looked like genuine knives and chomped upon the monster's head. It continued to bite down, and the sound of something finally beginning crack could be heard. It would have likely died at that moment, but this time, all seven tails interfered.

It was likely the giant dog's armor that saved its life. The tails all struck from the point into its side, forcing the dog's fangs out (though it managed to tear off pieces off its hard, shell-like skin, revealing bloody flesh underneath) and throwing it so far that it went over the ship's railing and landed on the frozen water. It got up and staggered to face the monster, before stumbling again. For a moment, all was silent. Then-

"Duran. Load silver cartridge."

With a series of mechanical ticks and clangs, the twin cannons on the dog's sides turned counterclockwise to face the monster and loaded. And as a result, another-

_BANG._

A pair of bloody holes suddenly appeared, one in the monster's head, another in one of its tails, almost blowing part of it off. While the dog stood up again and moved to rejoin its master, the monster staggered about the deck, stepping on, though not crushing, several people in the process. When it finally began to tip over, it also began to disintegrate. To turn to dust and blow away. While relief was present, Maina felt a mass explosion of emotions take place inside her as well. She didn't normally question whether or not something was real, but it did very much cross her mind that this would make for an excellent dream.

The girl turned to look at Maina and the other girl.

"You're both still moving. So I guess that means that you can see it too." She pointed up. She was pointing to the red star beside the moon.

Maina gave no response.

"Whatever you do," she continued, "don't go to Fuuka Academy. You _will _die."

She mounted the giant dog, which then began to turn away. As it began to leap away, Maina said nothing, as she felt her slipping away from consciousness. And as it happened, she thought that for a moment, the silhouette of a dragon appeared.

Maina did not know how much time had passed at first, but she realized that it must have been several hours, as there was light in the sky. She pushed herself to her knees, confused and groggy, and looked around. She was in some form of forest. The sunlight filtered through the leaves of a variety of trees, any of which were accompanied by large bushes settled upon a floor sparsely covered with long grass. A short distance to the left of her, the girl she had found in the cargo room lay, still unconscious, her already ragged clothes torn in various new places. And in front of her stood two other girls, both completely unfamiliar, one with a look of shock on her face, the other simply glaring down at her. In the distance behind them, Maina noticed a massive and fancy-looking building. She had just arrived at Fuuka Academy in the oddest possible manner.


End file.
